A Network Services Contract to include Voice and Data Solutions

NYP (North Yorkshire Police) is currently in / approaching its final year of its WAN (Wide Area Network) and LAN (Local Area Network) contracts with VMB (Virgin Media Business). The WAN contract has already been extended to the maximum term permitted. NYP is required to have a compliant network under the PSN-P legislation a further tender is required to ensure that a compliant solution remains in place.

Furthermore, NYP are moving to a new HQ in Northallerton in 2017 and will require network connection at Alverton Court in March 2017. It is intended that this would be the first phase of work under a new contract. NYP's Wi-Fi maintenance contract expires in February 2017 and this scope of work will be included in this tender.

Being a geographically large and rural county there are significant challenges in ensuring that quality network connectivity is maintained on a 24/7/365 basis.

The scope of the proposed contract will include a scalable, highly available and affordable solution. All NYP sites will be included in the scope with the project linking into the NYP Estates Strategy and the contract will allow for rationalisation of buildings and locations throughout the contract term.

Potential suppliers will be required to demonstrate that they can provide a suitable and affordable solution. It is expected that a blend of MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) cloud service options will be proposed to help reduce annual revenue costs.

Due to the increased level of services running from NYP's two data centres an increased bandwidth option is required. This is will be an increase above current bandwidth levels to ensure availably and disaster recovery is maintained for current and future systems.

During the transition from the current network to a new solution, some disruption will be encountered, however the proposed solution will ensure that this will be removed or reduced where possible.